The final week of May in Japan signals the
beginning of the inter-league games. NPB teams will play a reduced
schedule of 18
inter-league games this season, down from 24 in previous seasons.The pacific league (PL) has traditionally
dominated the central league (CL) over the inter-league schedule, with
many CL
teams suffering from a lack of anything resembling a DH on their
benches
(generally filled with a collection of veteran has-beens or rookie
speedsters).This year however, as a
result of the reduction in games, teams will not face each other in
even
numbers of home and away legs as they have previously. As a result some
teams
may find themselves with a bit of scheduling luck that they will be
hoping to
turn into a few extra wins over the 18 game run.An
example of this would be the PL leading
Nippon Ham Fighters, facing the bottom three CL teams (Hiroshima,
Yakult, and
Hansin) in all three series they play away and without their DH (as do 4th placed Chiba Lotte).